Clergy Reflection from Allen, June 27, 2025

Friends in Christ, 

Recently I read a spiritual memoir that highlights one of the ministries of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, CA. What began as a humble ministry called “The Food Pantry” has now grown into one of San Francisco’s largest independent food assistance programs, distributing thousands of pounds of food each week to the city’s poor and needy. This didn’t happen on its own, of course, but is due in large part to the author’s courage to share a meal with God.

Sara Miles never intended to turnaround St. Gregory’s food ministry, and truth be told, she never intended to become a Christian at all; but at St. Gregory’s Miles learned of a God who rose from the dead to have breakfast with his friends. Who hailed them on the road to Emmaus and ate with them. And in whose presence no one ever goes hungry. In Take this Bread, Miles reflects upon how in a meal as simple as bread and wine she met Jesus – she ate with God. And so, “If I wanted to see God,” she writes, “I knew I could feed people.”

Miles was drawn to faith because she met a Jesus – our Jesus – who eats with both saint and sinner, and who refuses to turn anyone away from God’s abundance. At St. Matthew’s, we aren’t home to something as big as “The Food Pantry” at St. Gregory’s; but then again, every loaf of bread begins with just an ounce of leavening. One of our ministries, Cooking for Community First! Village seeks to take God’s abundance out into the world. Community First! Village is a local nonprofit that provides permanent housing and a support community for people experiencing chronic homelessness. Every other month a group of faithful volunteers from St. Matt’s meet in the Huffman Hall kitchen to prepare a hot meal to take and serve to Community First! residents. Each volunteer I have spoken with has shared that they get just as much out of it as the residents, primarily because of the organic relationships that form along the way. It’s hard to share a meal with someone and not feel closer to one another!

The good news is that we are looking to expand how often we serve our neighbors at Community First! Village. If you or your household would like to join the team, please let myself or Jo Ann Swahn know at joannswahn@gmail.com. If the story of Miles and St. Gregory has anything to teach us, it is what one community can accomplish in the name of the One who calls us to feed one another. From “The Food Pantry” in San Francisco to Community First! Village here in Austin, one thing rings true: there is no surer way to see the face of God than by breaking bread with someone who is hungry.

Faithfully,